For those familiar with Kingsboro, the Lighthouse is well known from its distinct look, but driving over to this building can be somewhat confusing. Just go past the booth at the school entrance (you have to stop, ID and tell them what you are there for), then straight east to the parking lot at the end (there are a few parking lots scattered around the college area). You then have to hoof it over to the building and go up to the second floor where you have to find this particular room (it has been used before for meetings).

The list of topics to be discussed amongst the many issues here in the once Empire State commercial fishing morass:

- Identifying means of entry for new participants in New York's fisheries

- Apprenticeship

- Resolution of the latent licenses issue

Keep in mind this is a "fact-finding" / scooping meeting conducted by an individual who is NOT from NYS, and in which I was told a few....'things' about. I will leave it at that.

This is one of six Long Island/NYC meetings, and for fishermen from the Bay, there is also a second west end meeting being held in State Island (which I did give a heads up to a few fishermen who live in the 5th borough if they do not want to come to this venue).

I will let everyone know how it turns out, and I would highly recommend for those who hold a NYS FFL to get over to this meeting or any of the planned meetings during this month. It is that important....especially if you seen the "dog and pony show" that occurred at one of the recent MRAC meetings when this topic was broached.....

The walkaway point here is that the NYS DEC licensing system for the NYS FFL has been a well noted problem (to put it nicely) over the years (if not decades), and the proverbial "kicking the can down the road" that has occurred under NYS Director Jim Gilmore, has to be addressed.....like or not, Vegas odds are that few NYS FFL will be happy with how this plays out, as some issues may never be resolved to any NYS commercial fisherman's satisfaction